While many on the right are decrying Thursday’s decision by the Obama administration that could suspend deportation proceedings for thousands of young people who pose no threat to public safety, we believe it is a sensible policy.

Under the new policy, the secretary of Homeland Security can review, on a case-by-case basis, whether to stop deportation proceedings for people who are in the country illegally but pose no threat to national security or to public safety.

As The New York Times reported, the decision would, via administrative action taken by Janet Napolitano, help many intended beneficiaries of DREAM Act legislation that has been stalled in Congress for a decade.

The legislation, most recently re-introduced in the Senate by Colorado’s Michael Bennet, would grant U.S. citizenship for children of illegal immigrants after they complete a specified term in college or the military and pass a background check.

We have long favored passage of such legislation on the grounds that children should not be punished for their parents’ mistakes.

President Obama’s administrative order on Friday adheres to similar logic.

According to the Immigration Lawyers Association, the order would allow for review of cases involving people who are not criminals and have been in the country since childhood, have strong community ties, are veterans or relatives of persons in the armed services, are caregivers, have serious health issues, are victims of crime or otherwise have a strong basis for remaining in the United States.

The decision also could benefit committed couples in same-sex relationships.

Richard Socarides, who advised President Bill Clinton on gay issues, told The New York Times that the policy will also bring at least a temporary end to the deportations of gay people legally married to their same-sex American citizen partners, and it may extend to other people in same-sex partnerships.

Of course, it didn’t take long for the anti-illegal immigration firebrands to come out in full-throated uproar.

Many were not surprised by the prompt verdict Monday in the sexual-assault case in Denver involving Taylor Swift. A jury of six women and two men concluded within hours that a Denver radio host had groped Swift _ grabbed her butt beneath her skirt during a photo shoot, as his wife stood on the other side of Swift.

Touch not that statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville. Let it stand, but around it place plaques telling the curious that the man was a traitor to his country who went to war so white people could continue to own black people.